16 feared dead after hot air balloon crash near Austin, TX

[EE_]

Hopefully Hillary just lost 16 votes in November.

It's not clear if the dead were liberals, or conservatives, but we are hopeful it's the former. Austin is known as the liberal haven in the conservative state of Texas. No videos as of yet.

16 feared dead after hot air balloon crashes in Texas
Published July 30, 2016 FoxNews.com

DEVELOPING--Sixteen people were feared dead Saturday after a hot air balloon caught on fire and crashed in Central Texas, officials said.

Caldwell County Sheriff Daniel Law said in a statement his office received a 911 call at 7:44 a.m. local time about a possible vehicle accident at a spot near Lockhart, Texas.

He said when emergency responders and deputies arrived on the scene it was apparent that the reported fire was the basket portion of a hot air balloon.

“The Balloon was occupied and it does not appear at this time that there were any survivors of the crash,” the sheriff said. “Investigators are determining the number and the identities of victims at this time.”

The balloon was carrying 16 people, officials said.

Lynn Lunsford with the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that the accident happened when the hot air balloon crashed into a pasture.

Lunsford said that the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are going to the scene to investigate.

Lockhart is about 30 miles south of Austin.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/07/30/hot-air-balloon-carrying-at-least-16-people-crashes-in-texas.html

[Joshua01]

Which is why I keep advising people to stay out of hot air balloons!

[EE_]

Which is why I keep advising people to stay out of hot air balloons!

Assault balloons should be banned!

[Joshua01]

Assault balloons should be banned!

High capacity assault balloons (carrying 10 or more passengers) are banned in Massachusetts you know

[midnight rambler]

Likely the very balloon involved in this incident, taken from the operator's website which is down now, very large gondola = very large balloon necessary for the lift -

http://web.archive.org/web/20160709012137im_/http://www.hothotairballoonrides.com/images/stories/sixteen-passenger-balloon-basket.jpg

[midnight rambler]

Operator's website on wayback machine, note the capacity is up to 24 people, however NTSB is now saying 'multiple deaths' and no explicit count -

http://web.archive.org/web/20160702072807/http://hothotairballoonrides.com/pricing-a-terms.html

[Horn]

i doubt any in the balloon were contemplating upcoming U.S. elections when plummeting.

[Cebu_4_2]

Wires look to be only 20-25 foot up, not sure I understand why all would be dead.

[midnight rambler]

Wires look to be only 20-25 foot up, not sure I understand why all would be dead.

Transmission line towers more like at least 100 ft. in height, plus fire (likely from contact with power lines) ignited multiple propane tanks (several booms, like gunshots, were reported by locals).

http://www.kvue.com/news/local/16-dead-in-hot-air-balloon-crash-in-lockhart/284526260

[Cebu_4_2]

Transmission line towers more like at least 100 ft. in height, plus fire (likely from contact with power lines) ignited multiple propane tanks (several booms, like gunshots, were reported by locals).

http://www.kvue.com/news/local/16-dead-in-hot-air-balloon-crash-in-lockhart/284526260

I was lookiing at the wrong video. Yes that's quite high. Multiple propane tanks going off would also not be good. Had to have been burning a while to set them off.

[midnight rambler]

I was lookiing at the wrong video. Yes that's quite high. Multiple propane tanks going off would also not be good. Had to have been burning a while to set them off.

Yeah, Drudge has a video posted of another incident which is obviously not the same scene.

[Glass]

Sad news. if tanks were going off suggests they might have been tangled up for a while.

things never on my bucket list: sky diving, hot air balloon and bungee.

[midnight rambler]

The latest reports are saying the balloon hit the transmission lines and that visibility (fog) was a factor. LCRA, owner of the transmission lines, reported that two circuits on that line were tripped at that time.

[hoarder]

Hopefully Hillary just lost 16 votes in November.

It's not clear if the dead were liberals, or conservatives, but we are hopeful it's the former.Isn't Texas an electronic ballot state anyway? It's time to discard this lame theory that voting has anything to do with who runs things.

[Down1]

Pilot was a loser.

Nichols got his commercial license to pilot hot air balloons in Missouri in July 1996. His first drunken driving conviction came in St. Louis County in 1990, followed by two more convictions in 2002 and a fourth in 2010, according to online court records.

He was also convicted of a drug crime in 2000 and spent about a year and a half in prison before being paroled. He was returned to prison in April 2010 after his parole was revoked because of his drunken driving conviction that year. He was paroled again in January 2012.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/balloon-pilot-was-never-grounded-due-to-gap-in-oversight/ar-BBv8lGh?li=BBnb7Kz


http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/balloon-pilot-was-never-grounded-due-to-gap-in-oversight/ar-BBv8lGh?li=BBnb7Kz

[midnight rambler]

The most recent revelation on the incident is that the NTSB found the top flap (vent) of the balloon wreckage was open indicating a landing attempt was being made at the time of the incident. However an eyewitness said she heard a 'whoosh' just prior to the crash indicating heat was being being applied to get the balloon to ascend. ???

Additionally it has come out that the pilot had a hard landing with about a dozen passengers on board in December '14 and in that incident he immediately fled the scene "to locate the chase team" and left his passengers alone to fend for themselves huddling together to stay warm for THREE hours until the authorities arrived to rescue them.

His business pardner/roommate called him "a great pilot"...how the fuck do you not know where major powerlines are in an area you fly DAILY??